Wayne R. Scott
Half fast Leica User
I stumbled upon this article by a woman photographer part of which I am pasting into this thread. I will give her name in a later post to this thread. Anyone care to guess in which year this was written?
Any one of ordinary intelligence can manufacture a photograph. So many ordinary intelligences have discovered this fact that our highways and byways are littered with distorted reflections of nature. The camera has become the symbol of degenerate art. The unthinking photographer presses the button and leaves the rest to fate; and fate was ever a poor manager. Thought is an unknown quantity among the great majority, which rushes with fever excitement toward the newest diversion, forgetful of the fact that to attain without concentration is out of the natural order of things, and not realizing that he who hopes for a result unearned only drifts at the mercy of the tide. No machine can be a substitute for mind, and there are no short cuts to success. The way is long and tedious. However, there is always a minority, possessing sober discretion, which toils perseveringly, and in photography as among other arts and crafts, we find the faithful few striving for the truth. And this truth is a universal law which commands things artistic as well as natural.
Nothing can be gained through superficial effort, but analysis will solve many problems. While recognizing the limitations of photography as compared with painting, one can still see its advantages. The camera as a means toward an end plays a more important part than the tools of an artist, as the latter must spend years in learning to copy nature with mechanical fidelity before his equipment is parallel with that of the man with the camera. Not until one is master of technique can he produce a work of art. Thus, viewed in the light of a labor-saving machine, the camera scores its greatest victory. Still it is but a means to an end, and the picture possibilities are in the photographer.
His choice of subjects is necessarily limited, for imaginary fancies must be dispelled. The chimerical is dispensed with, proving photography a true child of our century. This age does not chase elusive shadows, but it chains the sunbeams, using them as a medium for soul expression; for what we call soul in a picture is but another name for symmetry, harmony - the perfect blending of idea and expression. The painter may attain it; why not the photographer? He knows that a desire to give form to his thoughts and dreams is not sufficient in itself, however intense the desire, however beautiful the thought. But if the incentive be strong enough, he will enter the prosaic land of why and wherefore and dig for himself in the hard, unyielding rock the reasons and laws which must support the castle he would rear. He learns that the camera not only reflects what is before it, but that it also reflects the intelligence back of it, - the intelligence that knows why simplicity in composition is pleasing and knows how to accentuate the important parts by repressing the superfluous, - that understands the affinity between certain lines and emotions and controls the innumerable subtle influences that exist in composition. It is the same intelligence that gives quality to a painting, recognizing natural laws as the basis of so-called inspiration. Assuredly the camera can idealize.
Wayne
The Picture Possibilities of Photography
Any one of ordinary intelligence can manufacture a photograph. So many ordinary intelligences have discovered this fact that our highways and byways are littered with distorted reflections of nature. The camera has become the symbol of degenerate art. The unthinking photographer presses the button and leaves the rest to fate; and fate was ever a poor manager. Thought is an unknown quantity among the great majority, which rushes with fever excitement toward the newest diversion, forgetful of the fact that to attain without concentration is out of the natural order of things, and not realizing that he who hopes for a result unearned only drifts at the mercy of the tide. No machine can be a substitute for mind, and there are no short cuts to success. The way is long and tedious. However, there is always a minority, possessing sober discretion, which toils perseveringly, and in photography as among other arts and crafts, we find the faithful few striving for the truth. And this truth is a universal law which commands things artistic as well as natural.
Nothing can be gained through superficial effort, but analysis will solve many problems. While recognizing the limitations of photography as compared with painting, one can still see its advantages. The camera as a means toward an end plays a more important part than the tools of an artist, as the latter must spend years in learning to copy nature with mechanical fidelity before his equipment is parallel with that of the man with the camera. Not until one is master of technique can he produce a work of art. Thus, viewed in the light of a labor-saving machine, the camera scores its greatest victory. Still it is but a means to an end, and the picture possibilities are in the photographer.
His choice of subjects is necessarily limited, for imaginary fancies must be dispelled. The chimerical is dispensed with, proving photography a true child of our century. This age does not chase elusive shadows, but it chains the sunbeams, using them as a medium for soul expression; for what we call soul in a picture is but another name for symmetry, harmony - the perfect blending of idea and expression. The painter may attain it; why not the photographer? He knows that a desire to give form to his thoughts and dreams is not sufficient in itself, however intense the desire, however beautiful the thought. But if the incentive be strong enough, he will enter the prosaic land of why and wherefore and dig for himself in the hard, unyielding rock the reasons and laws which must support the castle he would rear. He learns that the camera not only reflects what is before it, but that it also reflects the intelligence back of it, - the intelligence that knows why simplicity in composition is pleasing and knows how to accentuate the important parts by repressing the superfluous, - that understands the affinity between certain lines and emotions and controls the innumerable subtle influences that exist in composition. It is the same intelligence that gives quality to a painting, recognizing natural laws as the basis of so-called inspiration. Assuredly the camera can idealize.
Wayne
